Subject: Map of cities most impacted by the minimum wage (AEI Economics Ledger) If you have trouble reading

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Creating greater opportunity

Why a national minimum wage is unfair for low-cost cities. Andrew Biggs and Mark Perry: When the federal government imposes that same uniform national minimum wage of $10.10 per hour on a low-cost, low-wage labor market like Pueblo, that wage will be far above the appropriate wage for that community based on local market conditions and the relatively low cost of living, and the results could be disastrous. MUST-SEE MAP: Which US cities are impacted most by a minimum wage hike Fighting poverty the Bloomberg way. Robert Doar: Combine that strong economy with welfare programs that both require and reward work and you have a recipe for dramatically reducing the number of people on cash welfare. On the day Mayor Bloomberg left office, cash welfare was down 25% from when he took office, and down more than 70% from the peak welfare use in 1994 before the Giuliani administration started imposing work requirements in welfare. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Opportunity for all: How to think about income inequality

Another missed ACA deadline

The individual mandate goes poof. Thomas Miller and Abby McCloskey: The individual mandate had the least effect on those it was supposed to encourage to gain coverage the uninsured. McKinsey & Co. surveys found that a little over one-quarter of people signing up for coverage last month were previously uninsured. Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that about 1 million uninsured Americans will sign up for the Obamacare exchanges before open enrollment ends. For perspective, that's about 2 percent of the 48 million uninsured. Without the mandate, cost savings disappear. Joe Antos: By driving more people-particularly the young-into health insurance, the mandate was supposed to achieve near-universal coverage at a reasonable cost. But that assumes individuals believe that the tax penalty they would pay for failing to buy insurance is large enough to force compliance. Fairness and innovation sapped by central power. James Capretta: The lesson to be drawn here is that a law as consequential as health care reform should not be written in a way that allows the executive to effectively rewrite it in an ad hoc and discriminatory manner. It invites bending the rules and pushing legal boundaries for political reasons.

Ukraine and elsewhere

Ukraine aid held hostage for IMF reform. Desmond Lachman: Next week, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will make his case before the House Financial Service Committee for linking IMF reform to U.S. bilateral aid for Ukraine. If the past is any guide, he will do so by putting forward a set of disingenuous arguments in favor of his case. Are foreign pharmacies safe? Aparna Mathur: Findings from our paper suggest that private certification agencies play an active role in both the demand and supply of online drugs. From consumer s

perspective, foreign websites offer significant cost savings relative to US websites, and these savings attract US customers despite the FDA warning about risks of buying from overseas.

Housing risk keeps rising

Housing risk high, in spite of QM. Ed Pinto and Steve Oliner: Stable housing markets depend on the preponderance of loans being low risk ones that are unlikely to default even under stress. In February, only 43 percent of home purchase loans were rated low risk, raising serious questions about the ability of much of todays loan production to withstand a stress event. FHA is especially vulnerable in this regard, with less than 2 percent of its recent insured loans rated as low risk. New data show mortgage risk continues to rise, especially in California. AEIs International Center on Housing Risk: AEI experts report on risk ratings for federal agency mortgages securitized in February 2014, review trends for the NMRI series, and for the first time, release metro-level Mortgage Risk Indices for selected California metro areas. AUDIO Ed Pinto and Steve Oliner explain the February 2014 data Johnson-Crapo bill fails to protect taxpayers. Ed Pinto: The bill, as was the case with Fannie and Freddie, would encourage too much of the wrong kind of debt for our economydebt that bids up existing housing assets and the land they sit on, creating a temporary wealth effect and a crowding out of capital investment needed for a productive and growing economy and jobs growth. Worse, the result will be another artificial housing boom and consequent bust. Long-term homeownership trends. Alex Pollock: By 2010, home ownership was back down to 67%. Continuing down, it fell to 65% in 2013, close to where it had been in 1980. Overall, looking across the bubble rise and fall, there has been a 40-year plateau in the mid-60% range, during which time the U.S. has experienced two housing finance disasters.

In other news
Netflix wants the benefits of the Internet with none of the costs. Bret Swanson: Netflix appears to want consumers to pay for both their own connections and Netflix's connections. Moreover, depending on the pricing plans of the broadband providers, lots of consumers who are not Netflix subscribers will be subsidizing its business. Shouldn't Netflix subscribers pay Netflix's costs? Is inequality an outgrowth of capitalism? James Pethokoukis: Thomas Piketty is making a different and broader argument, one that intentionally rises to the level of grand theory: Embedded within the very fabric of capitalism is a powerful force pushing in the direction of rising inequality. The income generated from owning capital (everything from real estate to financial assets to intellectual property) tends to exceed the rate of economic growth.

Mark your calendar

3.31 AEI Event: The economic effects of territorial taxation, with remarks by Jason Furman 4.2 AEI Event: Long-term care: Is there a better way to pay for it? 4.3 Jobless claims released 4.4 March employment numbers

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